The last couple of months a true change has been noticeable within the Yoast HQ. That’s why the marketing team is so excited for the newest release of Yoast SEO: 11.7! Every week we share our favorite podcasts with each other. Or we come in earlier and stay in longer to finish a podcast episode and share it. It’s not the most ideal situation to spread awareness for podcasts, though. That’s why in the newest release of Yoast SEO podcasts are now set to index by Google – thank you development team. Now we can get back to less talking and more searching.
Will podcasts replace blog posts?
Unfortunately the obsession with podcasts by some coworkers is not the reason why podcasts are suddenly to be indexed by Google. Google now indexes podcasts through the RSS feeds and displays these in the search results. Previously this was not yet the case, so the feeds in Yoast SEO were set to noindex. This caused podcasts and other feeds to be no indexed. As podcasts are getting more and more popular, you do want to be able to be found on Google as well and not just through mouth to mouth and through the podcast apps.
A few years ago the buzz went around the web that blogging was dead. And look at blogs today: they’re still alive and kicking. Podcasts will not replace radio, just as ebooks are not replacing the printed books. And blogs are still as relevant as ever! And you can translate your podcasts into blog posts as well.
Schema, Schema, Schema
By now you probably know the 11.x releases of Yoast SEO are all about Schema. And if you didn’t yet know, you can read up about what it is in this ultimate guide. To give you a quick summary: Schema.org takes care of all the structured data needs on your website. Search engines can pick up data marked up this way to understand it better. We couldn’t have released Yoast SEO 11.7 without Schema improvements!
It’s now possible to use a subset of HTML tags in the FAQ and HowTo blocks! This means that you can now add links in your blocks and with a bit of luck, Google will show these links in your FAQ or HowTo rich results. Why this is useful, you might wonder? With this feature, you will give people more reasons to click through to your content and they won’t just stay on Google to read what you’ve written. We’ve also fixed a bug where the avatar in the knowledge graph settings would incorrectly overwrite the default user profile picture.
UX improvements and bug fixes in Yoast SEO Premium
Both Yoast SEO and Yoast SEO Premium have gotten quite some usability enhancements, bug fixes and accessibility improvements. In Yoast SEO Premium we’ve improved several messages regarding the internal linking tool. You’ll now get more accurate feedback when we’ve calculated the prominent words for a text, but no matching articles to link to were found. Also, the site-wide internal linking analysis now comes with more extensive explanation texts.
Are you wondering whether you should start a local ice-cream parlor that also delivers at home in the direct area this summer? Our Local SEO plugin has gotten quite some attention this release! Not only did we pay attention to the user experience, but we’ve also fixed bugs with the 12h and 24h notation. Check the full Local SEO changelog here.
PS: if you have a bakery, a local company or any other local store, these improvements are, of course, for you as well!
Update to Yoast SEO 11.7
It’s always smart to keep your software up to date. But if you’re not yet convinced to hit that update button right now: Yoast SEO 11.7 gives you more Schema advantages and has slight plugin improvements to get and stay ahead of your competition!
Caroline is creative online marketeer at Yoast. In her spare time she writes and maintains a personal blog. For a long time, she thought she didn't need to think about SEO as a blogger. She was very wrong.
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27 Responses to Yoast SEO 11.7: Are podcasts the new blogs?
laura • 5 years ago
Dear all, from the last release I didn’t found anymore the Keyword and the readibility options. Disappear! How can I proceed?
Hanneke • 5 years ago
Hi Laura,
In Yoast SEO 11.3 we moved the focus keyphrase field to the top of the meta box, after the release of Yoast SEO 11.6 there’s now a new menu at the top of the box, including a new set of tabs.
You can read all about it in the Yoast SEO 11.6 release post!
Good luck!
LEON WORDEN • 5 years ago
If I had, say, 10,000 posts before I added Yoast to my WordPress site, how do I get those 10,000 old posts into the Yoast sitemap that I’m using now?
Hanneke • 5 years ago
Hi Leon,
Thanks for asking! By default, Yoast SEO automatically includes all the publicly accessible posts/pages into the XML sitemap. So, if you have 10K old posts, Yoast SEO will include them automatically into the XML sitemap as soon as you activate it.
Hanneke – Yoast
LEON WORDEN • 5 years ago
Thank you very much!
Havi Goffan • 5 years ago
I want me feeds to remain noindex… what’s the solution?
Niamat • 5 years ago
Hello sir,
I need a complete SEO course to learn. And ranked my webpage.
Hi Sir
I only confused when I need to add the tag H2 in FAQ blocks? Is this work for newest version?
Thank You
John • 5 years ago
Feature request for a future update of yoast seo : please consider adding to the social accounts settings, fields for a business’s listing on sites such as TripAdvisor. So that they could be included in the “sameAs” output of the schema/structured data. Those listings are important for small businesses that operate in the tourism sectors
Edwin Toonen • 5 years ago
Hi John! Thanks for your suggestion. We’re rethinking that section anyway and this would be a great addition.
Ricky Wolff • 5 years ago
How do I add the H2 tags in FAQ blocks? Can’t seem to get it to work.
David • 5 years ago
Blogging definitely isn’t dead! People still have an obsession with learning, hence reading when they’re sitting around or waiting. It just seems that they prefer listen-blogreading when they’re on the go (ie. listening to podcasts).
Podcast features are a great link-building tool now. It just gives us more options to promote content.
shivam.malani • 5 years ago
Do you plan to add “HowToSupply” and “HowToTool” to the How-to schema? Because the Google Search Console treats How-to pages created with Yoast as “Valid with warnings” because “supply” and “tool” fields are missing.
Please respond to this.
Edwin Toonen • 5 years ago
Hi Shivam. Yes, supply and tool fields are coming. No ETA yet, though.
Snapperbuzz • 5 years ago
yes it is use full for me ..thanks for it and keep posting.
abdul muqeet • 5 years ago
hello, my Yoast SEO is having some issues please someone fix it?
Anoop Vaish • 5 years ago
why you are not running a blog for Hindi users.
Max • 5 years ago
guys, when finally we can add GTIN/EAN to schema for products?! Im so waiting for this easy thing to add… but you keep ignoring it
Edwin Toonen • 5 years ago
Hi Max. Yoast SEO doesn’t output Schema for products. Our WooCommerce SEO plugin does and that might be the place for this. We have an open issue on product SKU Schema, I’ll add your GTIN suggestion to that issue.
Risto • 5 years ago
Thanks for the update, really nice that now we can use HTML tags in the FAQ and How-to blocks. But I wanted to check if I did it correctly.
So what I did is that I clicked Edit in HTML mode, and changed this part of the code:
How to use HTML tags in Yoast Schema FAQ block?
into this:
How to use HTML tags in Yoast Schema FAQ block?
Does that look correct? Thanks for your help!
Risto • 5 years ago
Okay lol so the code doesn’t show in my last comment, anyways, would be good if there is an example for us not-so-tech-savy guys how to do it :)
Edwin Toonen • 5 years ago
Hi Risto. You should be able to just use the rich editor to add styling like you normally do.
Risto • 5 years ago
Hi Edwin, I think I found the issue, I have wordpress 5.1.1 and I need to have 5.2. at least for it to work properly I guess!
Risto • 5 years ago
Hi again Edwin,
Even with the latest wordpress, in the rich editor there is no options to put H2-tags for example. Only italic and strikethrough.
Could you update to this article an image how it should look like? And how to do it the right way if it doesn’t work, by editing the code. Tnx!
Risto • 5 years ago
Hi Edwin, my rich editor doesn’t show much options. See pic in the link: https://prnt.sc/ojbat1
When I put my mouse on the “Question”. There is only possibility for the following styling options: “Italic”, “Strikethrough” and “Link”.
If I put my mouse on the Answer part, there is also possibility to “Bold”.
Dear all, from the last release I didn’t found anymore the Keyword and the readibility options. Disappear! How can I proceed?
Hi Laura,
In Yoast SEO 11.3 we moved the focus keyphrase field to the top of the meta box, after the release of Yoast SEO 11.6 there’s now a new menu at the top of the box, including a new set of tabs.
You can read all about it in the Yoast SEO 11.6 release post!
Good luck!
If I had, say, 10,000 posts before I added Yoast to my WordPress site, how do I get those 10,000 old posts into the Yoast sitemap that I’m using now?
Hi Leon,
Thanks for asking! By default, Yoast SEO automatically includes all the publicly accessible posts/pages into the XML sitemap. So, if you have 10K old posts, Yoast SEO will include them automatically into the XML sitemap as soon as you activate it.
Hanneke – Yoast
Thank you very much!
I want me feeds to remain noindex… what’s the solution?
Hello sir,
I need a complete SEO course to learn. And ranked my webpage.
Hello!
Have you tried our free SEO for beginners training yet?
Good luck!
Hi Sir
I only confused when I need to add the tag H2 in FAQ blocks? Is this work for newest version?
Thank You
Feature request for a future update of yoast seo : please consider adding to the social accounts settings, fields for a business’s listing on sites such as TripAdvisor. So that they could be included in the “sameAs” output of the schema/structured data. Those listings are important for small businesses that operate in the tourism sectors
Hi John! Thanks for your suggestion. We’re rethinking that section anyway and this would be a great addition.
How do I add the H2 tags in FAQ blocks? Can’t seem to get it to work.
Blogging definitely isn’t dead! People still have an obsession with learning, hence reading when they’re sitting around or waiting. It just seems that they prefer listen-blogreading when they’re on the go (ie. listening to podcasts).
Podcast features are a great link-building tool now. It just gives us more options to promote content.
Do you plan to add “HowToSupply” and “HowToTool” to the How-to schema? Because the Google Search Console treats How-to pages created with Yoast as “Valid with warnings” because “supply” and “tool” fields are missing.
Please respond to this.
Hi Shivam. Yes, supply and tool fields are coming. No ETA yet, though.
yes it is use full for me ..thanks for it and keep posting.
hello, my Yoast SEO is having some issues please someone fix it?
why you are not running a blog for Hindi users.
guys, when finally we can add GTIN/EAN to schema for products?! Im so waiting for this easy thing to add… but you keep ignoring it
Hi Max. Yoast SEO doesn’t output Schema for products. Our WooCommerce SEO plugin does and that might be the place for this. We have an open issue on product SKU Schema, I’ll add your GTIN suggestion to that issue.
Thanks for the update, really nice that now we can use HTML tags in the FAQ and How-to blocks. But I wanted to check if I did it correctly.
So what I did is that I clicked Edit in HTML mode, and changed this part of the code:
How to use HTML tags in Yoast Schema FAQ block?
into this:
How to use HTML tags in Yoast Schema FAQ block?
Does that look correct? Thanks for your help!
Okay lol so the code doesn’t show in my last comment, anyways, would be good if there is an example for us not-so-tech-savy guys how to do it :)
Hi Risto. You should be able to just use the rich editor to add styling like you normally do.
Hi Edwin, I think I found the issue, I have wordpress 5.1.1 and I need to have 5.2. at least for it to work properly I guess!
Hi again Edwin,
Even with the latest wordpress, in the rich editor there is no options to put H2-tags for example. Only italic and strikethrough.
Could you update to this article an image how it should look like? And how to do it the right way if it doesn’t work, by editing the code. Tnx!
Hi Edwin, my rich editor doesn’t show much options. See pic in the link:
https://prnt.sc/ojbat1
When I put my mouse on the “Question”. There is only possibility for the following styling options: “Italic”, “Strikethrough” and “Link”.
If I put my mouse on the Answer part, there is also possibility to “Bold”.
I’m experiencing the same.